Feast

To read Tomaž Šalamun is to understand the delights of contemporary poetry. He is one of the major names in the international avant-garde. Irreverent, self-mythologizing, tragic, and visionary, he is a poet of immense range and cunning, able to encompass everything from Balkan wars and politics to the most intimate personal experiences. Feast, his latest collection in English, brings together both early and more recent work. "Realism, surrealism, song. Aphorisms, lyric, anti-lyric," as Jorie Graham wrote, are all to be found in these poems. Here is the most blasphemous of poets who is also a great religious poet. "Throw open a window, pull up a chair, and enjoy the imaginative feast" (Edward Hirsch). This essential collection showcases the powerful, disruptive games of a master poet: Avant-Garde Poetry: Discover the work of a leading voice in the international avant-garde, an heir to Rimbaud, the French Surrealists, and the New York Poets. Visionary Poetry: Experience a unique poetic voice that is at once tragic and whimsical, finding the infinite gift of the sublime in the shadow of historical tragedy. Slovenian Literature: Journey through a world where intimate personal experience collides with the politics of the Balkan wars, all molded by a fierce and playful Slovenianness. Experimental Style: A collection where form follows freedom, blending realism and surrealism, lyric and anti-lyric, in poems that derail logic to reveal a stranger reality.